A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away...

OK, so it was really only fifteen years or so (holy crap I feel old now) and it was only a couple hundred miles from where I now sit, but there was a time when I was White Wolf's bitch. I couldn't get enough of (what is now the old) World of Darkness. Mage: The Ascension and Werewolf: The Apocalypse were my favorites, but I also thought Changeling: The Dreaming and Wraith: The Oblivion were pretty cool. And yes, I must confess my shameful affection for Vampire: The Masquerade.

Fast-forward about a decade and a half. I was in my favorite used-books store today, and picked up a couple of books that I didn't have for Mage: The Sorcerers [sic] Crusade (a spinoff from Mage: The Ascension set during the Rennaissance, in the vein of Vampire: The Dark Ages and Werewolf: The Wild West), and I saw a number of books from various nWoD games. I started wondering (again) if the whole enterprise was any good.

I was a long-time player of the oWoD, and just couldn't ever get any warmth in my soul for the nWoD stuff. It's not bad, it's not worse than the old, or anything like that (I bought a few sourcebooks, and was impressed)...but I was so financially invested and comfortably snug in the old universe -- familiar with the rules, familiar with the lore, etc -- that I couldn't ever get into the new stuff.

It seems to be structurally sound, the system (in my opinion, based off the few books I have) seemed streamlined and smoother-running, and the fact it was a shared world was intended from the start (no doubt helping with power scale issues, I'd assume)...so it's probably safe to pick up, if one were so inclined.

Just...well...as for me and mine, we know if we ever decide to sit down and play Werewolf or Vampire, it'll be the old stuff, if for no other reason than to justify our bajillions of dollars of purchases.

nWOD mostly superior mechanics with a meh setting. There are a few good setting books out there (like Requiem for Rome) but mostly the stuff is bland comparison wise to the old. Also the number of subsystems actually make me prefer the oWOD mechanics overall (just barely as the new core mechanic is WAY better) its kinda like comparing AD&D to D20. If you stayed away from all the extra books in AD&D (oWOD) the rules were wonky but once you learned them you were done. D20 (nWOD) the core rules are simple but then there are all these exceptions making the sheer amount of exceptions hard to learn, but these exceptions don't come up all the time.

[edit] I should add that the supernaturals have been toned down in power level, humans are now a pretty decent threat. All in all I would stick with the revised edition but the new one isnt bad either especially if you want to run a mortals game.

I am not happy with the nWOD morality system. Vampire lame and the werewolves are worthless. The oWOD was at least cool and interesting.

I agree with you!! its so cool than any other game

Setting-wise, I like the OWoD also. Rules-wise I like the new, except for their combat mechanic. It is like HEX (Hollow Earth Expedition, a pulp-era rpg) where the attack skill is added to the attack damage and rolled against the defense skill added to the armor/protection of the defender. Totalling everything like is quicker, but really nerfs things, imo. I much prefer to represent the different factors (skill & power) seperately, so that a skilled person with low damage-power, would strike more often, just not do much damage each time; and the large/strong guy who hits hard, but not often is reflected differently. In HEX and NWoD they efven out to play the same in game. Bleh.

I havent played HEX but I have played Desolation which also uses the Ubiquity system and the one HUGE difference is you can take the average rather than roll. Your only supposed to role if your the underdog in the fight. Otherwise your better than the other guy (or at leased you think you are) so you just take the average. My centurion in Desolation hardly ever rolls in a fight because his average is 10+ and most people don't even get 10 dice.

They spent too much time getting the mechanics overly balanced between all the game worlds and not enough time on developing the game worlds. I tried making a Vampire character and just couldn't make one I cared about because I couldn't identify with ANY of the clans or bloodlines or sects or whatever. Back in oWoD, I had to force myself to pick between half a dozen choices I really liked (Brujah, Malkavian, Ravnos, Gangrel, and Toreador in that order were my favs). In nWoD, I just flat out can't find even a single group -- not a single combination of all the groups, but a flat-out SINGLE GROUP -- that I cared enough about to even finish character creation, let alone take to a game and play. I had a lot of problems with the other books, but I just skimmed over them. I mean if I can't play a vampire, what's the point really?